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The Screaming Moderate

Bombing Iran: Good, bad? Discuss

6/25/2025

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Bombing Iran’s nuclear sites – good or bad? Discuss.

From one perspective, the bombings by Trump may change the politics of the Middle East. Personally, I doubt it but that’s based on nothing ever having changed the Middle East before or the complex territorial, political, religious makeup of the region. Some day, something has to change.

Though my hope is it does, for the better

My reality is – I just don’t trust Donald J. Trump.

And that distrust is turning out to be justified to this point. He claims obliteration of the sites. Initial reports from his own Defense Department say that isn’t true.

The Trump-appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs gave the more realistic report immediately after the bombing – that serious damage was done but he didn’t use the word “obliterate.” That’s probably because the truth is no one really knows yet what damage was done. And the chairman was leaning on facts and his own credibility, not trying to score quick political points.

Another question, of course, is: Was obliteration of the sites necessary to stop Iran from having a nuclear bomb? Maybe not. Time will tell.


The president’s press secretary tells us that if something is hit with multiple 30,000-pound bombs, of course it’s been obliterated!

Of course, a 30,000-pound buster bomb, best I can research, weighs 30,000 pounds because it carries a heavy load – propeller to dig into the ground, and other necessary equipment to carry out its mission:– dig hundreds of feet into the earth and then explode. It’s bomb weight is impressive – 2400 kg (that’s a 5,000 pound bomb).

No question it’s big and does serious damage, but when the President and his spokespeople say a “30,000-pound bomb,” that’s not exactly what it is. And the description carries more weight (pardon the unintentional pun), than the bomb itself is. It's more for public relations purposes to label it a "30,000-pound" bomb.

Quibbling, I know, but just trying to lay out some facts.

Trump and his minions are calling the DoD’s initial assessment wrong but that’s based on them thinking it’s wrong, not knowing it’s wrong.


Again, quibbling because no one really “knows” yet what damage the bombing did.

So, if Ronald Reagan, or George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton, for that matter, had ordered the same bombing – their reports would carry far more credibility than Trump’s, to me anyway. Because they wouldn’t lie about something so serious. But Trump (eye on the Nobel Prize, and history of outlandish statements to make his point) would.

When a President uses up his credibility by telling untold, proven, tens of thousands of lies in his career, when we go to “war” his credibility is, at best, questionable. You can disagree with interpretation of intelligence, as Trump does often, but you can’t disagree with what are facts.

Do I hope the bombing did damage? Of course. What right-minded individual thinks Iran should possess a nuclear bomb? When you have the power to order a big bombing – and you do – you want it to be successful.

Fact is, we just don’t know what real damage the bombing did – yet.

Nor do we know if the current cease fire will  hold. Hard to know when it’s agreed to by two players (Israel and Iran) who have a history  of breaking such agreements and a President whose credibility is, at  best, questionable.

So, we’ll see.

Discussion may, of course, continue.


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Monarchy or Republic (if we can keep it)

6/11/2025

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We are as close to being an authoritarian-led country as much as a Republic can be that close.

Our county was founded as a republic (as a reminder the definition of republic is:  a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

As you watch President Trump’s actions, though, it’s obvious he’d prefer being a monarch. For example:
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not send National Guard into an area without a request from state or local leadership.
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold congressionally passed funds from those it was aimed at helping.
  • Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold research funding from universities as punishment for policies they disagree with, even if they are right.
  • Presidents don’t typically pardon those convicted of attacking the Congress and plotting and attempting to carry out an insurrection.

President Trump, though, has done all those things (and more). He also has kidnapped a parade that originally was proposed as a small affair to honor the Army’s birthday and made sure it is celebrating his own birthday. It’s the parade he’s dreamed of holding since he was young.

In our country, dreams (and nightmares) can come true.

Look for Trump to deliver his standard partisan speech attacking his perceived enemies on a day set aside to honor our military and those who honorably served our country and Constitution, not our president.

On January 6th, we all watched on television as our Congress was attacked by hundreds of people who wanted to overthrow our government. Not all of them, of course, but a good chunk who later pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes against our country and law enforcement.

President Trump’s reaction – pardon them all, even those who attacked not “just” a symbol of our freedom, but law enforcement who were  trying to protect it. Pardoned. Get out of jail free.

Out of jail and standing back and standing by to help their leader when he calls them next.

That call may come at any moment now.

He already has broken precedent and law by sending National Guard and the Marines into California to quell protest. Are some of those people paid to stir up trouble? Of course they are but most are “simply” protesting Trump’s government’s approach to immigration.

That approach is: Set a quota for daily deportations and meet  it, no matter the methods or the consequences.

Are Americans upset with our immigration policy. Yes, as they should be.

In fact, the Congress -- both parties -- agreed on a bill that would have addressed many of the flaws in our system but that law was stopped in its tracks when Donald J. Trump said: Stop! It doesn’t help my campaign to pass that law and remove a populist issue I can leverage to my advantage.

Thus, the law was not passed. Therefore, our immigration problems grew worse. Now he uses those problems to justify his authoritarian desires.

Want to blame that on Biden? Fine, go for it. Blame doesn’t’ matter to good politicians – solutions to problems matter.  And Biden isn't president anymore. He's history.

Trump though prefers the issue to the solution: The better to appear to be a populist. The better to serve his goals, not the country’s goals.

The language he and his minions use to describe the protests in California is aimed at one thing: establishing what they think is a case for invoking the Insurrection Act. You don’t even need to listen closely – just pay attention to the words. It’s coming.

Only the courts (may) save us.

Trump is threatening that protests at his birthday parade will “be met with very big force.” Protests. That’s part of the fabric of our country, agree with the cause or not – people get to scream and yell and march.

They don’t get to grab equipment away from law enforcement and use it to smash windows of the Congress though. That’s against the law. That may be insurrection. Apparently, a pardonable offense these days.

But that’s what those “tourists” did on Jan. 6 to our Capitol.

Now that Trump has begun to use his powers as commander-in-chief against his own people, what’s to stop him from going even further? He’s already deported people without due process. He’s already paid a foreign leader to house those deported in prisons he couldn’t last until lunch in.

Now, he is deporting illegal immigrants from allied countries and deporting them – but not back to the countries they came from (and who want them) but to Gitmo -- without informing our allies where or who they are.

No president has unilaterally invoked the Insurrection Act against a state’s wishes since Lyndon Johnson did to provide protection for civil rights activists in Alabama in 1965.

But Trump did it just the other day. Inserting himself as a tough guy in a protest that covered a few blocks of Los Angeles. Some of those folks, don’t get me wrong, committed crimes and should be punished. Some of them. Some are just citizens standing up for their neighbors.

Our media tends to knee-jerk react to the politics of all this. California’s governor makes a speech to take political advantage of his state’s tragic recent history to leap ahead of the candidates for 2028, they say. Finally, they tell us someone has taken the lead on taking on Trump.

Personally, I don’t dwell on who should run in 2028.  I’m simply hoping we have a free election in 2028.

It’s not guaranteed.


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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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